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Ontology Essays & Research Papers

Best Ontology Essays

An Outline of Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy
Descartes's Arguments for Universal Doubt and the "Cogito" Argument (An Outline of Meditations 1,2)
The argument for universal doubt:
A. The dream argument:
1. I often have perceptions very much like the ones I usually have in sensation while I am dreaming.
2. There are no definite signs to distinguish dream experience from waking experience.
therefore,
3. It is possible that I am dreaming right now and that all of my perceptions...

* Descartes’ Proofs for God’s Existence
* www.prshockley.org
* In sum, 3 Arguments for God’s Existence are used by Descartes in Meditations:
1. The argument for the existence of God from the fact that I have an idea of Him (1st proof in Meditation 3).
2. The argument from my own existence. Here it is argued that a cause more perfect than myself must be assumed to explain my coming into being and my continued existence (2nd proof in Meditation 3).
3. The Ontological Argument for...

October 1, 2010
When we did yoga on Thursday during class time, it was so much fun. I had never done yoga before and I thought it was going to be hard, but it actually came very easy to me. It worked out every core in my body, especially in the abdominal area. I had imagined before I did yoga that I was going to be out of breathe a lot, but then again I didn’t really know what yoga consisted of. I think we did it, to work out our muscles and joints in our body. Every body is different, so...

Ontologically objective:
The ontologically objective thing is the thing that does not depend on you of its existence, like the existence of a table or a tree. You can’t decide its physical existence. Means the existence of an object that you can’t deny by using reason. For example, there is a tree in the garden you can know it exists. Even it died, there is still a withered trunk. You can prove its existence physically.
Ontologically subjective:
The thing that’s existence depends on us is...

314 Words | 1 Page

All Ontology Essays

﻿Realism
Is reality dependent of us and our minds
Beyond what our minds ascertain
This position - connected to theory of meaning - meaning of propositions is what makes them true/false
Depends on its truth conditions - what fact makes it true
Anti-realists
We need verification conditions
-when truth conditions apply
-and we are justified to hold them
E.g. Past and present
Past- can't be repeated
-ways of getting hold of it is. fallible.
Said statements about the past - verification...

Metaphysics has been given many definitions over the years, Aristotle says that it is the science of being as being, or the study of everything that can be. Another definition given to metaphysics is the science of the most universal conceptions. My personal favorite would be metaphysics is the science of the most abstract conceptions. This, to me, is saying that metaphysics is the study of ideas real physics does not solve, things that cannot be measured by a gauge. Aristotle also said "The...

Philosophies of Education according to Ontologies
Ontological philosophy takes ontology to be a kind of explanation in which the causes are basic substances, and the effects are found in the world. Given the existence of certain kinds of basic substances and basic relationships, it explains the things found in the world by showing how their existence is constituted by such substances and relations among them.
In dualism there are two kinds of things that are real: mind/thought , idealism,...

Ghostly Stalker
In the short story “Miriam”, by Truman Capote writes about a transformation that occurs within an old widow. The widow, Mrs. Miller always lived by an organized lifestyle until she encounters Miriam. As soon as Mrs. Miller befriends Miriam, she begins to stalk as well as make demands from Mrs. Miller. Soon her life begins to be manipulated by Miriam. Yet Mrs. Miller seems to be drawn to Miriam’s strangeness such as her inhumanness, possessive ability as well as her abnormal...

I. THE THEORY OF THE IDEAS AND PLATO’S ONTOLOGY
I. 1. The ontological dualism
The theory of the Ideas is the base of Plato’s philosophy: the Ideas are not only the real objects ontologically speaking, but they are the authentically objects of knowledge epistemologically speaking. From the point of view of ethics and politics, they are the foundation of the right behaviour, and anthropologically speaking they are the base of Plato’s dualism and they even allow him demonstrate...

﻿ “Empiricism, Semantics and Ontology”
by Rudolf Carnap
I. The Problem of Abstract Entities
Empiricists attempt to limit themselves to nominalistic language, a language not containing references to abstract entities such as properties, classes, relations, numbers, propositions, etc. They treat mathematics as a mere calculus wherein no interpretation is given or can be given. However, abstract entities are impossible to avoid for some scientific contexts.
The theory of meaning and truth is the...

METAPHYSICS: ONTOLOGY: DUALISM VS. MATERIALISM
The original idea of the word 'philosophy' was a 'love of wisdom' (Cowan 2). Philosophy is meant to explore the 'big questions' and try to find answers as best we can in the time we have been given. One of the areas of study in philosophy is metaphysics, which deals in the ideas of the nature of reality. "We look at the world, and we assume that it is the way it appears to be. It is not." (Carreira 7). There is much to reality that can be...

African American religion, Ontology and stories
Diane Alvarado
History 110
Dr. Lehman
Exam 1
African Americans have many values and believes. They have their own commonalities that are found in African religion and their ontology. Their commonalities and shared ontology tell us about the Africans worldview. Not only that but we get to learn about their creation stories that helps us understand their culture and values. There are different stories and myths that explain how humans...

1. The three primary divine attributes:
Omnipotence: God has maximal powerful, is all powerful, capable of doing anything
Omniscience: God is all seeing and all knowing
Omnibenevolence: God does only good, God is morally perfect and is considered the source of morality
Two secondary divine attributes:
Omniprescence: God is present everywhere at the same time
Incorporeal: God is not composed of matter, has no material...

“Is mathematics discovered or invented?” To commence with this essay, we must first understand a few key words used in this statement and question. ‘Mathematics’ is generally believed to be the body of knowledge centered on concepts such as quantity, structure, space, and change, and also the academic discipline that studies them. Whereas ‘discover’ and ‘invent’ means to find information, a place or an object, especially for the first time and to design or create something which has never been...

Kevin Kim
Prof. Bozicevic
Intro to Philosophy
10/7/14
Argument from Illusion
Decartes' was a very rigorous philosopher who introduced a new methodology of
philosophy which states; anything that can be doubted to the slightest extent, is conceivably
non­existent. All things perceived by his senses up to now, may not all be true, for he has been
deceived by his senses prior to this enlightened acknowledgement of his skeptical doubts. He ...

﻿a) Explain Anselm’s ontological argument (25)
Saint Anselm, the author of the book The Proslogian came up with what is believed to be the first formulation of the ontological argument. The writings of the ontological argument in The Proslogian were Anselm’s reflections of the passage Psalm 14:1 “Fools say in their hearts ’There is no god’” and directs his argument at the ‘fools’ From this passage. Ontology means the study of being so therefore Anselm’s argument is formulated to prove the...

The arguments presented from William Rowe in The Cosmological Argument conclude that although the Cosmological Argument might be a sound argument, it does not provide good rational grounds for believing that among those beings that exist there is one whose existence is accounted for by its own nature. Rowe reasons that it does not attempt to prove anything about the first cause or about God, except to argue that such a cause must exist. Defenders of the argument reply that the Principles of...

Theology – Mr. Mayemba Kate Foote 12Ben
- Explain the objections of Gaunilo and Kant to the ontological argument.
Gaunilo and Kant both had objections to Anselms ontological argument. While Kant argued that the problem in the argument lay in it’s claim that existence is it’s predicate, Gaunilo argued that there must be something wrong with it even though he could not identify a specific fault.
Kant argued that existence cannot be a predicate because it...

Juliana Tabor
Professor Webb
Introduction to Philosophy
4/1/13
Descartes: Meditations 3
In Descartes’s Meditations III, the Meditator describes his idea of God as "a substance that is infinite, eternal, immutable, independent, supremely intelligent, supremely powerful, and which created both myself and everything else."(70) Thus, due to his opinion in regards to the idea of God, the Meditator views God containing a far more objective reality than a formal one. Due to the idea that of...

﻿SPIRITAN SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY ISIENU-NUSKKA
AN AFFILIATE OF
UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA NSUKKA
TOPIC
THE CATEGORIES OF ARISTOTLE
COURSE
INTRODUCTION TO METAPHYSICS 1
NAME
MABKWE NICHOLAS CHUKWUNWEIKE
REG. NO 09/UN/SI/A/0826
LECTURER
REV. FR. DR. B. ABANUKA C.S.Sp.
DATE
JANUARY 2011
INTRODUCTION
Aristotle (384-322BC) is one of the most influential philosophers of the western tradition and had many philosophical works credited to him. In his treatise on logic...

Descartes proves that God exists in his third meditation. He proves that God exists because he wants to be certain about things outside of himself. But, he cannot be certain of these things if he is ignorant about the existence of God. This is because if a supreme God exists, he could cause Descartes to be mistaken in the one avenue to certainty that he has. This avenue is known as clear and distinct perception, and, according to Descartes, it is what is necessary to be certain about a thing....

Essay 1: Leibniz' Principle of Pre-Established Harmony
In his Monadology, Leibniz describes the existence and nature of "Monads" or substances. Leibniz believes that it is impossible for there to be any kind of causal interaction between the Monads. Yet, he also states that each Monad reflects the system as a whole, including any change in any other Monad. So then, to explain how it is that this "mirroring" takes place, without the existence of any causal interaction, Leibniz puts forth...

Roxx Alvarado
Professor Aaron Wilson
PHI2010
8 September 2011
Analysis to Anselm’s Ontological Argument and the Argument from Evil
The debate of the existence of God had been active since before the first philosopher has pondered the question. Anselm’s Ontological Argument was introduced during the 11th century and had stood deductively valid until the 18th century. Then there are the arguments to aim disprove God, such as the Argument from Evil.
The Ontological argument is an...

Modern Versions of the Ontological Argument
Norman Malcolm
One influential attempt to ground the ontological argument in the notion of God as an unlimited being. As Malcolm describes this idea:
“God is usually conceived of as an unlimited being. He is conceived of as a being who could not be limited, that is, as an absolutely unlimited being.… If God is conceived to be an absolutely unlimited being He must be conceived to be unlimited in regard to His existence as well as His operation. In...

Does God Exist ?
1. What role do arguments play in answering this question?
I think arguments have played an important role in analyzing and understanding the depth of this question, for mankind. Although the question itself seems factual (either it does or it doesn't), yet no arguments have been able to answer this question conclusively, despite many debates going on for centuries. One possible reason for that inconclusiveness may lie in our intuition and the way, humans define God and...

Thanks to Saint Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury1, the ontological argument was born in the early 1100’s. The ontological point of view, according to St. Anselm, describes God as “a being than which no greater can be conceived”.2 St. Anselm concluded that if such being failed to exist, another even greater being could be conceived that does exist. This argument would be illogical, as no being can be greater than the greatest being. Therefore God must exist. As you can see, St. Anselm’s...

Introduction
St Anselm (1033-1109) fame rests on his belief that faith is prior to reason: “I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this I also believe- that unless I believed, I should not understand”. Anselm employed his powers of reason in order to establish, by rational argument, the existence of God (Ally 2010:62).
Anselm’s ontological argument
When we are really thinking of something (and not merely uttering the associated verbal...

Ontological Argument
One of the most fascinating arguments for the existence of an all-perfect God is the ontological argument. Ontological arguments are arguments to prove the existence of God based on pure reason alone. They attempt to show that we can deduce God’s existence from, so to speak, the very definition of God. St. Anselm of Canterbury proposed the first and most well known ontological argument in 1078 in his Proslogion, but it was actually Immanuel Kant, an 18th century German...

﻿Explain the Ontological Argument as Proposed by Anselm
Anselm’s Ontological Argument has for many hundreds of years been fiercely criticised and defended by a great number of religious and non-religious figures. Anselm forms his argument on reason and not evidence, making it an ‘a priori’ argument. This argument is formed on the idea that the premises lead you to a reliable conclusion. For example:
1. This is philosophy homework.
2. It is an essay.
3. This is a philosophy essay.
As...

Human Freedom
Freedom in mind, freedom in nature, and freedom in subjectivity of individual are three kinds of freedoms. However, freedom should be expressed within the limits of reason and morality. Having freedom equals having the power to think, to speak, and to act without externally imposed restrains. As a matter of fact, finding freedom in order to live free is the common idea in Plato with "The Allegory of the Cave"; Henry David Thoreau with " Where I lived and What I lived for"; and...

Does God Exist? It is one of the most asks questions around the world still to this day. A controversial topic which doesn’t have an answer. No way to prove, or disprove the concept that there is someone or something else that has created the universe we live in. But what is the definition of God? The definition of God is that He is omniscient (all knowing), omnipotent (all powerful), and omnibenevolent (morally perfect and all loving). This definition is most used in Philosophy of Religion and...

All the following arguments are theological arguments written to prove the existence of god.
Cosmological argument- This argument says that the existence of the world or universe is strong evidence for the existence of the God who created it.
1) Everything that exists has a cause of its existence.
(2) The universe exists.
Therefore
(3) The universe has a cause of its existence.
(4) If the universe has a cause of its existence, then that cause is God.
Therefore:
(5) God exists.
Plato and...

Anselm’s ontological argument is an a priori proof of God’s existence. Anselm starts with an idea that depends on experience for their justification and then proceeds by purely logical means to the conclusion that God exists. His aim is to refute “the fool who says in his heart there is no God” (Psalms 14:1) this is showing that the ‘fool’ has important features which are; he understands the claim that God exists and he does not believe God exists. Anselm said “an atheist cannot consistently be...

The Classical Theistic Conception of God states that there is a unique intelligent being that created the universe and that being is wholly perfect, omnipotent, omniscient, and omni-benevolent. In connection with the question of whether belief in a being that satisfies this definition is ever grounded in evidence and argument there are three arguments to consider. These three arguments are the ontological argument, the cosmological argument, and the teleological argument. Each provides...

Abstract and Referential Ontology: Descartes Versus Spinoza on the Existence of God.
The concept of God is central to the development of Cartesian and Spinozan philosophy. Although both philosophers employ an ontological argument for the existence and necessity of God the specific nature of God differs greatly with each account. While Descartes suggests a Judeo-Christian concept of God, Spinoza argues a more monistic deity similar to that of the Hindu tradition. The most significant...

Sanjog Bhatti
Professor Lennox
Philosophy has been present throughout time, even before the time of Socrates in
Ancient Greece. This pre-Socratic philosophy was focused on the oldest branch of thinking,
metaphysics. Philosophers, such as Parmenides and Herclitus, basically wanted to answer the
fundamental question: what? These two philosophers mainly focused on the nature of reality
and why it exists. Although they agreed on the idea that the world could be reduced to one
thing, Parmenides and...

To asses the strengths of the Ontological Argument for Gods existence, we firstly need to understand what it entails. The Ontological Argument looks at proof 'A Priori', which is Analytical truth, reason based proof. This can be explained by saying 1+1=2. We know this to be true, as it is based on reasoning, and is a logical statement. This can be seen as a strength of the Ontological Argument, the fact that it is logical and rational. It deals with knowledge gained independently of experience,...

Explain Anselm’s ontological argument.
The ontological argument was put forth at first as a prayer by the eleventh century monk and philosopher Anselm of Canterbury. In his Proslogion, which means discourse, he presented this argument as a prayer for believers to substantiate their belief in god. Anselm uses ‘a priori’ (which means before experience) reasoning, which conveys that it does not rely or depend on experience and so an argument of this sort is more plausible and likely to intrigue...

﻿Jireh Batulan
Endurantism, Perdurantism, and the Ship of Theseus
ABSTRACT: Endurantism and perdurantism are theories that describe how objects can persist through time. These theories will be used in an effort to solve a puzzle that has been dated all the way back to the first century: the Ship of Theseus. It will be determined that the two theories fail in solving the Ship of Theseus puzzle.
According to Brian Garrett of Australian National University, metaphysics is concerned...

﻿Letter to a philosopher
Jessica Liska
October 2014
To Whom It May Concern,
The statement “The world is absurd, in the sense that no ultimate explanation can be given for why it is the way it is” (Moore & Bruder, 2011, p. 152) intrigues me. I agree with this statement for many different reasons. One of which is the fact that it all comes down to one simple thing: there is no explanation. Maybe we are all a little crazy, but there are so many factors that have to be considered when even...

﻿Aquinas' Five Proofs
What real evidence can be supplied for God's existence? St. Thomas, in his Summa Theologica, sets forth five separate proofs for the existence of God, Unlike St. Anselm's proof, which deals with pure concepts, St. Thomas' proofs rely on the world of our experience-what we can see around us. In these proofs we can easily see the influence of Aristotle and his doctrine of the Four Causes.
l) The Proof from Motion. We observe motion all around us. Whatever is in motion...

Universality vs. Specificity
Despite the fact that Top Girls was written in the fairly recent past, and Medea was written in the time of the ancient Greeks, the ability for an audience or readership to relate to the content is opposite of what may be expected. Universality makes the ancient Medea relatable to modern audiences, and specificity forces Top Girls into a role which illuminates feminism in the 1980s.
The key elements of plot in Medea: the philandering husband, the woman scorned,...

Rene Descartes’s Meditations
Descartes, in his third Meditation, conveys a powerful argument regarding the existence of God. The first concept that he outlines is that since every idea must be caused, and if he has an idea that he isn’t the cause of, then something other than him must exist. The next step of Descartes’s argument states that all ideas of material reality could have only originated within him, but the idea of God, a perpetual and flawless being could not have originated from...

One argument used to rationally support the existence of God is the ontological argument. There are many forms of ontological arguments, one of the main perspective of it comes from Anselm. The context of Anselm’s argument is that by logic, God must be an existing being hence nothing greater can be imagined.
Anselm wrote his popular form of the argument in his ‘Proslogion’. He had 2 forms to the argument. The first form said that humans can define God’s being in their mind “That than which...

In the beginning, I dreaded the fact of having to take a philosophy class. It all seemed preposterous to me. Then the final essay topic reflected several emotional responses in the beginning of the class. The Afterlife was only known to this student by means of religious teachings and not researched to the extent of whether or not the Afterlife matters in reference to how we live. How do we live if this unknown place actually exists?
Initial readings in chapter assignments opened this...

The definition of White privilege in my eyes would be that privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, rather than because of anything they’ve done or failed to do. Below I selected a few privileges that I found I could relate to and one of them that I could not connect to. For starters, I believe to some degree, most American's have a lot of these privileges in their everyday lives. With that being said for me...

"I think, therefore I am"
The statement "I think, therefore I am" lays the groundwork for Renè Descartes' argument in the Meditations. To understand this expression, one must put themselves in Descartes' place. He started off trying to figure what he can know with certainty. He examined a large body of knowledge and figured out that he cannot be certain of any knowledge at all. Beginning in Meditation Two, Descartes searches for the something that must be true no matter what. This led to the...

Explain Anselm’s Ontological argument (25 marks)
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury and a monk was the creator of the Ontological Argument. The main aspect behind the argument was that the existence of God was true, in simple words, God exists. The argument is deductive as it depends only on knowledge and logic, not on experience as experiencing God is impossible physically. It is also a priori for similar reasons; the argument relies on logic alone.
Anselm put forward his ideas about the...

While a prisoner of war in 1940/1941 Sartre read Martin Heidegger's Being and Time, an ontological investigation through the lens and method of Husserlian phenomenology (Husserl was Heidegger's teacher). Reading Being and Time initiated Sartre's own enquiry leading to the publication in 1943 of Being and Nothingness whose subtitle is 'A Phenomenological Essay on Ontology'. Sartre's essay is clearly influenced by Heidegger though Sartre was profoundly skeptical of any measure by which humanity...

November 12, 2008
Intro to Philosophy
Critical Analysis of Dualism, Monism, and Solipsism
In this report I will give my critical analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, and clarity of dualism, monism, and solipsism.
According to dualists, a human being is both a physical body, and a non-physical mind. We can easily determine properties that are physical. Anything that takes up space can be considered a physical property. However, it is nearly impossible to determine exactly what...

There are several branches of philosophy found in Minority Report –ethics, truth and metaphysics. Ethics is the study of morality; truth is the study of what is true; metaphysics questions reality. The most prominent philosophy in the film is metaphysics, due to it being the underlying philosophy that created the problem and causes the plot to occur in the first place.
Ethics and truth are branches of philosophy evident in the film. In Minority Report, the pre-cogs are 3 children who live in...

I AM EXISTING
I am existing not because of me or anyone in this universe but our creator our LORD, our CHRIST. He made me exist for a reason for a purpose in life he only knew.Only God can tell why i'm here, Only him can describe his own creation. Us as human being and other living and non-living things here in the universe.
Our creator gives us handbook for life that explains why we exists; he gave us the bible which composed of laws,historical information,poetry,prophecy, and devide...

AQUINAS' AND ANSELM'S ARGUMENTS
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
IN SYLLOGISTIC FORM
Aquinas
[I] Aquinas' First Argument, Motion
(1) Objects are in motion.
(2) If something is in motion, then it must be caused to be in motion by
something outside of itself.
(3) There can be no infinite chain of movers/movees.
(4) So there is a first, unmoved mover.
(5) Therefore, God exists.
[II] Aquinas' Second Argument, Causality
(1) Some events cause other events.
(2) If an event...

The question about the existence of God or, more generally speaking, of a supernatural entity that steers the course of the world, is probably as old as humanity itself. Many great philosophers were concerned with this basic and yet so important question which remains to be a controversial issue to this day! In the following I will commit myself to the above-mentioned question by firstly reconstructing Anselm´s proof of God´s existence and secondly considering his position in the light of the...

﻿The Ontological Argument
Peter Millican
Any argument which attempts to prove God’s existence a priori based only on His nature can be termed an “Ontological Argument”. Historically, however, the term is inextricably associated with the famous argument presented in Anselm’s Proslogion chapter II, and with the later variant advanced by Descartes in his fifth Meditation and subsequently developed by Leibniz. Some have claimed that Anselm’s argument was anticipated in the thought either of...

Proof or Truth
Kristin Stepp
3/15/2013
PHI 208
Professor Johnson
Religion has been the cause of great camaraderie as well as great turmoil since the beginning of time. From the ancient Greeks and polytheism to Christianity and monotheistic societies, we have attempted to search for answers to universal questions through religion and spirituality. Philosophers and scientists alike have struggled with the idea that these great Gods are who we humans portray them to be, if in fact they...

﻿Outline Descartes’ Ontological Argument and explain the key objections that may be used against it.
Descartes took the Ontological Argument as presented by Anselm and developed it in a different form. Descartes saw the argument in terms of necessary existence. For Descartes, the idea of God necessarily entails his existence.
He established that our thoughts are evidence of our own existence (‘I think therefore I am’), and so wanted to see what else he could prove exists. He used the example of...

﻿Anselm’s most famous work was a book called the Proslogion in which he outlines his Ontological argument in the form of a prayer spoken directly to God. As a firm believer in God, Anselm wished to prove God’s existence and confirm his strong faith by using logic and reason. The Ontological argument is a priori and is based on deductive reasoning because it seeks to prove the existence of God from the understanding of the attributes of the God of classical theism.
Chapter Two of the Proslogion...

Faith Caldwell
Abernathy
British Literature, 4th
Due: 23 April 2012
Time in “Sonnet 19”
In the equation of life, Time has always been an independent variable. Time cannot be slowed, lengthened, nor controlled in any manner. However, Time has control over all things. Time leaves its mark everywhere; whether it is in nature with the seasons changing or the aging of an animal. How one accepts its results is one’s own choice. In William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 19” Time is shown deteriorating the...

﻿How convincing is the view that we are born with at least some (innate) knowledge?
Innate knowledge is knowledge that is already in the mind without experience. This is the view taken by rationalists, which contrasts against the empiricist view that the mind starts tabula rasa, and all knowledge is gained through experience. Plato argued that all ideas or concepts are innate and that when you gain knowledge, it’s merely recollecting what you already know innately.
The view that we are...

﻿Sections 6 to 55 of Indian Evidence Act describe the facts that are deemed relevant. These are as follows - [TrOcMI ConODC SABADOJOC]
Section 6 - Relevancy of facts forming part of same transaction - Facts which, though not in issue, are so connected with a fact in issue as to form part of the same transaction, are relevant, whether they occurred at the same time and place or at different times and places. For example - (a) A is accused of the murder of B by beating him. Whatever was said...

The Cartesian Circle
Descartes found that many things he thought were true were actually false. This led Descartes to try and find a way to figure out what you know and what you cannot know. To do this, Descartes assumes that he knows nothing. In order to find what one can actually know, he attempts to build from the ground up and build a body of knowledge that must in fact be true. That means he wants to find clear and indubitable propositions on which to base knowledge. For a proposition to...

The Art of Living
I remember when I was young, I’ve been wondering why people are living? Why we exist? Why do all these stuffs are here on earth? There are lots of questions filled up my mind yet I found no answer. I can’t think enough for these, I need answers; I have to know what is really the reason of one’s existence.
I am very much sure that in millions or billions of people who are living, it’s not only me who became curious on this matter. Many of us are wondering but only few have...

9-21-13​Philosophy
Heraclitus V.S Parmenides
​There have been many philosophers that have made impacts in history by changing the way that people about reality. Two of these philosophers had contradicting beliefs that cannot both be true simultaneously. These two pre-Socratic philosophers were Heraclitus and Parmenides. One believed in ceaseless change, while the other didn’t believe there was ever change. By looking at the philosopher’s beliefs and examining contradictions between the two...

﻿Does God Exist?
Ever since the existence of man kind, we have been questioning the existence of God. How can we know God exists if we can't see him? The existence of God provides a convenient answer to unexplained questions, while never providing answers to the questions about God himself. Descartes states in Meditations on First Philosophy that he is going to “inquire whether there is a God.” (Page 71) Despite his doubts of the existence of bodily things, he believed that the idea of God...

“God’s existence can be proved a priori” Discuss
Trying to prove that God exists is a difficult argument and many people have tried many different ways. The Ontological argument is one argument; at the centre of the argument is the concept of existence. The Ontological argument has been argued from a group of philosophers for the existence of God. "Ontological" means talking about being and so that being is the existence of God. The ontological argument differs from other arguments in favour...

﻿A defense of the ontological argument
Daniel Andrews
In this essay I will first explain the ontological argument and my reasons for choosing it. I will then discuss why I believe it is a better account for the existence of god than the teleological argument and the cosmological argument.
I will then move onto discuss various theologians that oppose the ontological argument and critique their responses. The aim of the essay if to show the strength of the argument and to expose some key...

Faith: A Total Commitment
The biblical concept of faith implies deep personal commitment. Nowhere in the Scriptures do we find people merely giving God an affirming nod. True faith always involves a total commitment of one’s self to God.
Seminary life is never easy. I have been through a lot of difficulties. But, there is one important virtue I learned from my stay in the seminary, the virtue of sacrifice. Seminary formation entails a lot of sacrifice. It demands ontological death – dying...

Dialogue between Plato and Aristotle(c. 428–347 B.C.E.)
“Beauty is the example of a form; beauty is not something that you can encounter directly in the physical world like an object such as a tree or horse. A tree or a horse may or may not be beautiful, but beauty meets with objects. Beauty does not stand alone, but it accompanies objects in the physical world”, said Plato. “Form determines what a thing is and in combination with matter is to have a thing”, replied Aristotle. “Form is...

Carlos Monino
2101433
Postmodern Literature
Time, Death, and Finitude In “Synecdoche, New York”
In the most simplistic mode, death is part of life. To be living is to be dying but the arrival of death constitutes the end of being. Take this passage from Heidegger’s “Being And Time”:
“Death is the possibility of the absolute impossibility of Dasein. Thus
death reveals itself as that possibility which is one’s ownmost, which
is non-relational, and which is not to be outstripped....

Intro to Philosophy
Anselm’s ontological argument focuses on the notion that God exists. He defines God as being one “that than which no greater can be conceived.” If God is defined as the greatest being, he emphasizes nothing can be imagined greater than God. Anselm believes that if an individual understands the definition of God, than God exists in the understanding of that person. It is greater to exist in reality than in the mind alone. Anselm illustrates this point with the image of a...

“I think therefore I am-Descartes;” “All noble things are as difficult as they are rare- Spinoza.” Decorates and Spinoza are unique; they are like nothing this class has studied previous. They focus on nature, existence and power as the fundamental building blocks to their unique philosophies. The beauty of these two men’s philosophies is not only in their contrasts but in all the ideas the students can draw from their logically thinking strategies; ultimately creating an individual philosophy...

Introduction
a. We can observe through Plato’s various works that he has some difficulty in defining universals; like justice, piety, etc.
b. In an attempt to provide a definition for intangible universals, Plato constructs a theory of forms to show that the sensible world of particulars are mere imitations of the real world where forms reside, independent of thought and existing in their own metaphysical domain that can be accessed through the mind using reason. Plato's theory of forms is...

﻿Japeth B. Jaco AB- Philosophy
Metaphysics December 1, 2014
Occurrence in my life
“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions”. We could never go back to the past were what we did has already been done. When we discover new things you don't see your old thoughts the same way. We add new information that will help us to expand and deepen our knowledge through our understanding the experiences that we had encounter. I saw too many...

INTRODUCTION
We exist as a human being. As a human being we are different from animals. Since we are more rational, can ponder upon our past and manipulate our present and future. But is it sufficient to be human? To have a “self” is one of the most important elements of realizing human existence. This self has been called differently by different traditions according to the way they interpret it to be. For instance, in Indian philosophy it is taken as atman, and most of them make distinction...

To what extent does Gaunilo’s criticism of Anselm’s argument succeed in demonstrating that the argument fails?
Gaunilo, a Benedictine monk and contemporary of St Anselm was the first to raise objections to Anselm’s idea that God exists by definition, claiming within “On behalf of the Fool” that Anselm’s argument was not logical and needed to be discredited. Gaunilo famously claimed that Anselm’s conclusion that the non-existence of God is “unintelligible” cannot show that God necessarily...

﻿Explain Feuerbach’s teaching on Religion
Feuerbach began his philosophical career as a Hegelian but quickly came to see the shortcomings of this philosophy. He argued that Hegel’s system was a mere ‘ghost of theology’ and swiftly moved on to write his own works. His most famous being ‘The Essence of Christianity’ and ‘The Essence of Religion’. Feuerbach was a modernist and in his major works he tends to reduce religion to its existential, sociological and anthropological origins.
Feuerbach...

﻿Bertrand Russell embraces the Cartesian technique of radical doubt. Descartes first employed it in his philosophical writings that held confusion about ordinary things.
Russell starts by asking the reader to consider what knowledge exists that can be known beyond reasonable doubt. His purpose is to produce the realization that radical doubt soon brings even the most self-evident assumptions in our everyday lives under reconsideration. At first Russell describes a scene: "I am now sitting in a...

Why is there something rather than nothing? Why do certain things exist? Why are things the way they are? This question, “Why not nothing?” asks if it is possible to think of a world where nothing exists. This question is significant because it brings up the idea of conceiving other possible worlds. It gives one the ability of imaging worlds in a different way. Could one picture a world without water bottles? Is it possible for triangles to have more than one-hundred eighty degrees? This...

Does God Exist?
The question “Does God exist?” is an extremely expansive and immense topic that has been debated for centuries. This question has plagued mankind since we began to think logically. It is difficult to say whether there may or may not be a god, or even many gods, as we have limited knowledge regarding this issue. We currently even question God’s existence today, however the answer can never certainly and truly be found. There is evidence supporting his existence, but there is also...

Seminar Discussion And Essay Assignment
In “Game theories”, Clive Thomson contrasts the differences and similarities between the real world and that of the gaming world, through his depiction and analysis of the economics in both environments. To further drive Thomson’s insight, As a group we discussed two main points that are integral in understanding his perspective on the matter. One, the idea of an “economical pure model,” a scenario that is present in the gaming world as all individuals...

﻿Yarmina Kamal
Mrs. Fortney
7th Period
11 September, 2014
In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato defines education and ignorance as a part of human nature, and establishes that unless man makes judgments based on varied perspectives through an open mind, he will never be able to advance in knowledge. Through a parable he tells his student Glaucon, Plato illustrates that one has to seek wisdom with a perceptive attitude, while also interpreting the opposing side’s argument. By doing this, man can...

The First-Cause Argument
In Bertrand Russell's "Why I am Not a Christian" in the first-cause argument he states that If everything has a cause, why do we assume God has no cause. If God has no cause then we can not assume that everything has a cause. For instance the universe might as well not have a cause if God does not have one.
He also states that it is possible to imagine the world beginning to exist and it is also possible to imagine that the world did not exist. We simply choose...

Does Descartes provide a convincing argument for the claim that mind and matter are distinct substances
Descartes’ Argument For Dualism
In his Meditations Rene Descartes aimed to reconstruct the whole of science by trying to prove the distinction between mind and matter. He gives an argument from doubt, and another from conceivability. I will give a brief summary of the foundations Descartes builds his thesis on, and then looking at his arguments and whether they are capable of persuading us...

When studying one of the most well known philosophers, Jean-Paul Sartre, we are quickly introduced to the concept of bad faith. Without reading anything about this topic, the term itself, perhaps, gives off a negative connotation. But to a great surprise, Sartre’s concept of bad faith is far from having a negative background. Through this intelligent philosopher, we learn that bad faith is merely a lie that we tell to ourselves in order to deny that we are being free and responsible.
In...

﻿‘There is no soul…’
35 Marks
The issues focused on whether a soul exists or not; I personally think that we do have a soul therefore, I disagree with this statement ‘there is no soul’. The main reason to that is because I believe that our soul is our identity and without our soul we are left with nothing but our body which then leaves us the same as every other human on this earth however, the only thing that can actually differ us from other human beings in order to make such a creative...

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Ontology Development for Online Food Ordering System Management
Author: Md. Alamgir Hussain
ID: 1071553011
Supervisor: Dr Joanna Isabelle OLSZEWSKA
Date: 18 March, 2011
School of Computing & Engineering
A Project report submitted in partial fulfilment of the
requirements for the degree of MSc Information Systems
Management in the School of Computing & Engineering at the
University of Huddersfield
Acknowledgement
Throughout the course of completing this...

Anselm's ontological argument is a priori proof of God's existence. Anselm begins his
argument with ideas that do not depend on experience and progress to a throughly logical
explanation that God necessarily exists. Anselm's goal is to prove to the "fool" that God has to
exist. He says that anyone who has an understanding of the existence of God can and logically
has to believe that God really does exist.
Anselm starts off with a statement that is slightly simple and straight...

God's Existence Questioned: The Pursuit to Knowledge
God generally refers to one supreme, holy, personal being; the divine unity of ultimate goodness and of ultimate reality. Throughout history, God's existence has been questioned by many. The existence of God led to the pursuit of knowledge for many philosophers, including Rene Descartes. In Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes logically proves the existence of an infinite and truthful being. As a result, he states two...

The Metaphysical Pizza as Sliced by Plato and Aristotle
Plato and Aristotle were Greek philosophers who lived within the third and fourth century BC. Thought Aristotle was a student of Plato, they each had very different ideas or theories on how life is or Metaphysics. Plato theorized that reality was outside of our physical world and outside of most humans understanding, while Aristotle theorized that this physical world was the only world and the only reality.
Plato looked for a universal...

Argument and Logic of Augustine
Bernadette Matthews
PHI/105
07/08/2010
Tara Ross
Argument and Logic of Augustine
My understanding from this excerpt is Augustine and his belief on answering the question of God and Time along with Plato and Plotinus helped Augustine break new philosophical ground. Augustine believed that before God had created us that there was no time, So why did God create the world when he did. Augustine believed that time only became existent after God created...

Will Bamesberger
Philosophy 107
9/24/12
Hume Writing Assignment 1
Hume questions why humans always make a necessary connection to events. Hume has always stated that it is impossible for humans to think anything that they have not already experienced. So to find the idea of Necessary Connection we have to look back on our impressions. We have to find where the idea of Necessary Connection came from. Hume argues that we cannot create new ideas for ourselves, which solidifies his position...

What Heidegger Means by Being-in-the-World
Martin Heidegger's main interest was to raise the issue of Being, that is, to make sense of our capacity to make sense of things. Additionally he wished to rekindle the notion that although difficult to understand, this issue was of utmost importance (Dreyfus 1991). Heidegger's study, however, was of a specific type of Being, the human being, referred to by Heidegger as Dasein', which literally means Being-there' (Solomon 1972). By using the...

In the text "Lord of the Flies"; written by William Golding, the presentation of the setting effectively developed the main themes of civilization and the loss of innocence. The physical location (the remote island) which this novel was set in helped serve the theme of constructing civilisation. However, as the stranded boys progressed on this island savagery overwhelmed their instincts and this helped develop the theme of loss of innocence.
"Lord of the Flies" was set on an isolated tropical...

﻿Kaylee Brown
Professor Jeffrey Librett
COLT 470
10 November 2013
Being and Time by Martin Heidegger the concept of “Resoluteness”
Martin Heidegger was a German Philosopher who examined the concept of phenomenological ontology. All of his writings, such as: Being and Time, What is Metaphysics?, Identity and Difference, and What is Called Thinking? have influenced the progression and development of ideas on existentialism and temporal being (Scott). Specifically, in one of his works, Being...

Metaphysics
The Problem of Universals
The Ontological problem has occupied many philosophers and intellectuals since the very beginning of human thought. What seems to be a simple and rather ridiculous question to the average person, ‘what exists?’ or ‘what is there?’ serves as the general question for the ontological problem. Almost everyone accepts the existence of physical objects, to which I will now refer as ‘particulars’. Actual pencils, buildings, cats, humans and planets are all...

Compare And Contrast The Philosophy Of Parmenides With That Of Heraclitus
The two pre-Socratic philosophers with their surviving works have both proven to show a great argument concerning the creation; or rather the existence of the universe and what lies in it, as well as some explanations on their belief of the primary substance. However, the most interesting philosophy which they both agree and disagree on in two very different ways in the concept of change in the universe and how it...